Help for your musical memory while on the road

By Staff, Relaxnews | January 15, 2014 |

Kia and Hyundai are teaming up with music discovery and identification service SoundHound to help drivers name that tune without taking their eyes off the road.

Driver distraction is a hot topic at the moment and understandably so. With the rise of the smartphone comes the rise of the temptation to look at and handle a smartphone when its owner really should have both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road.

But many of the smartphone’s features, from a curated music playlist to hands-free calls and turn by turn navigation, are proving crucial to enhancing the driving experience — that’s why car companies are frantically working at ways to safely integrate many of these features into the current and future models.

However, just as distracting is that moment when a song comes on the radio and you’re driven to distraction trying to remember who sang it. Obviously, you could reach for your smartphone and launch an app like Shazam but then we’re back to square one in terms of driver distraction.

But now, thanks to a partnership with SoundHound, owners of new Hyundai and Kia cars need rack their musical memories no more. Cars from both manufacturers on sale in the U.S. and China are going to have SoundHound’s music-tagging feature integrated directly into the infotainment system.

Just hit the dedicated button and artist, track and album information will come up on the screen. Best of all, the system can keep track of your requests and let you access them via a smartphone or tablet later — very useful when perusing the CD bargain baskets at a service station or rest stop on a long road trip.